Cards: Display Real-Time Countdowns

The Counter card (formerly Countdown) is ideal for businesses looking to display a countdown clock to a specific event such as project launches, task deadlines, or counting down to the new year. Apart from counting down, the Counter card can also count up, which allows messaging such as “Days without Incident” at factories or warehouses can be displayed. The Counter card is an Appspace supported card, which is officially created and periodically updated by Appspace with new templates and features.

Apart from the basic card customizations, the following customizations and features are available on the Counter card:

• With the introduction of Content Categories in Appspace 8.0 ac.22, the Counter card template is assigned with the Productivity & Engagement content category.
• Display a message with a count down or count up timer.
• Display a message with a count down or count up based on units, and the ability to configure the incremental values of the units.
• Customize the clock style as either Flipboard or Digital.
• Configure the clock timer to display years, months, days, hours, minutes, or seconds.
• Choose the auto or manual clock formatting options.
• Configure clock color.
• Configure text color.
• Configure card background color or image.
• Flip the layout order.
• Display a final message once the countdown has been reached. This message will not be available for a count up.

This article provides the instructions to create and configure a Counter card, which allows you to quickly and easily display a live count-down or count-up to a specific date and time. What’s in this article:

Prerequisite

• Account Owner, Publisher, Editor, or Content Producer (Author) role to add or edit content in Library.

Create and Configure Counter Card

The instructions below allow you to create countdowns.

1. Log in to the Appspace console.
2. To create this card, select one of the following options:
   
   • Click +QUICK ACTION from the Appspace menu bar on the top right, and select Create Content.
   • Click Library from the ☰ Appspace menu, and select a library or folder you wish to create the content in. Click +CREATE, and select Content.
   • To create and add the card directly to an existing channel, refer to Add Content to Playlist Channels.
3. Select Messaging from the All Templates drop-down menu, and click Counter.
   
   
   
   Important

   If you are unable to locate the content, try using either the Search bar, the Order by, or Filter icon to narrow down the content that you are looking for.
4. Enter the Title of the content as this will also act as the filename for the content. This is a mandatory field.
   
5. In the Edit tab:
   
   
   
   • Select the Counter Direction:
     • Count down
     • Count up
   • Select the Counter Type:
     • Calendar Based
       • Select the Start Date to count down or count up from the drop-down calendar.
       • Select the Clock Format:
         • Auto
         • Manual – Determine the clock formatting to be displayed from the Select Clock Format drop-down menu. All options are selected by default.
     • Unit Based
       • Select the Start Date to count down or count up from the drop-down calendar.
       • Enter the Starting Value and Increment By values.
       • Select the incremental duration from the Every drop-down menu. Defaulted at every Second.
       • The End Condition options vary depending on the Counter Direction selected above.
         • If Count down was selected, select the Number of Units option and enter the end value.
         • If Count up was selected, select one of the following options:
           • End Date – proceed to select the end date from the drop-down calendar.
           • Number of Units – proceed to enter the end value.
           • Never – The counter runs perpetually.
   • In the Text section, click the arrow to expand:
     • Enter the Title of the counter.
     • Optionally, if Unit Based was selected, you may enter and customize the counter Label.
     • Optionally, if Count down was selected, you may enter a message to be displayed once the count down ends in the End of counter message field.
   • In the Design section, click the arrow to expand:
     • Select the Clock Style:
       • Flipboard.
       • Digital.
6. In the Card section, you may flip the layout of the counter title and timer, and if the card is configured as a count down, click the Preview (eye) icon to preview the end message of the countdown when it ends.
7. In the Article tab:
   • Include an Article or Caption to accompany the content item when being displayed on mobile apps, tablets, and other social collaboration apps.
   • Enter a Referral Link to link more information to the content.
8. In the Schedule tab:
   • You may add the content to a channel by selecting the channel from the Add to channel drop-down menu, or leave it unassigned to be added later.
   • When the content is assigned to a channel, the SCHEDULING and DISPLAY PROPERTIES options are displayed. Refer to the Configure Content Playback Properties: Dayparting, Frequency, Scheduling, in a Playlist Channel article for detailed configuration instructions.
9. In the Settings tab:
   
   
   
   • The Name field will be auto-populated to match the Title of the content which will also act as the filename for the content. This is a mandatory field.
   • Select the Content Category from the drop-down menu to match the focus of the message, or leave it at the default content category.
   • Enter any relevant Tags for the content. (Optional)
   • Select a folder for the content in the Library Location drop-down menu to change the default folder location.
   • Select an expiry date for the content from the Auto Delete Content from Library drop-down menu. (Optional)
   • Upload an image to be used as the Thumbnail for the content.
10. Once done, click SAVE.

Edit Counter Card

The instructions below show you how to edit a Counter card.

1. Log in to the Appspace console.
2. Click Library from the ☰ Appspace menu, and select a library or folder containing the content you wish to edit.
3. Select and click the Counter card to edit, and select the desired tab to edit or view.
   • In the Edit, Article, and Settings tabs:
     • You may edit the content the same way as it was configured. For detailed instructions on how to do this, please refer to the Create and Configure Counter Card section above.
   • In the Preview tab:
     • Preview how the content is displayed on your device.
   • In the Channels tab:
     • You may add the content to a channel by selecting the channel from the Add to channel drop-down menu, or leave it unassigned to be added later.
     • When the content is assigned to a channel, the SCHEDULING and DISPLAY PROPERTIES options are displayed. Refer to the Configure Content Playback Properties: Dayparting, Frequency, Scheduling, in a Playlist Channel article for detailed configuration instructions.
   • In the Analytics tab:
     • View the individual content analytics in this tab. For more information, please refer to the Individual Content Analytics section of the Analytics article.
4. Once done, click SAVE.